The yearly UNCTAD E-Week took place in Geneva between the 4th and the 8th of December 2023. During the week, Wallonia-Brussels in Geneva in partnership with the Permanent representation of the OIF in Geneva, organised a workshop on the discoverability of digital content in French.
The panel was composed of Ms. Sharon Weinblum, Delegate general of Wallonia-Brussels in Geneva, Prof. Destiny Tchéhouali from the University of Québec in Montreal, Mr. David Gueye, Deputy Director of Digital at TV5 Monde, and Ms. Xianhong Hu, Program Specialist at the UNESCO’s Intergovernmental Program of Information for All. The panel was moderated by Henri Monceau, Permanent representative of the OIF in Geneva.
While contents circulating on the internet exist in about 400 languages, the vast majority of those presented to users when searching the internet, are in English. The speakers discussed the challenges generated by xthis situation: challenges that are not only of technical nature but that also relate to the preservation of cultural diversity, the economic and development capacities and to the circulation of knowledge. The speakers agreed on the necessity of framing and setting up initiatives in favour of the discoverability of content that is truly multilingual.
